Isn’t it great that email has that “receive receipt” function? I think there is a “read receipt” message also. In using this we are notified that the receiver of the message did, in fact, get the message from us. I tend to think it sends a message that you don’t trust the person but I understand things get lost in cyberspace too.

Of course, there is no “understand receipt” which would tell us if the receiver of the message actually got what we were trying to say. When we are face to face we have body language and changes in pace, tone and inflection of our voice to help us as we try to determine if the message was understood.

In email we lose these important cues. Without those cues communication becomes even more difficult. Misunderstandings are more frequent and we then use more email to probably make the situation worse.

Don’t get me wrong, I love email. I also love looking someone in the eye to make sure they get it. Last week I flew to San Francisco on short notice for this very reason. I didn’t want to fly cross-country for a four hour meeting but I did because that was what was required.

How often do you send an email or leave a voice mail when you would be better served by going face to face? Busy people and technical people are quick to hide use email but they may be missing something along the way with the people they work with.

Don’t forget the “understand receipt” function when you are communicating with someone, no matter what method you are using.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 2:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.